Four terms, four separate things
SOGIE stands for sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. Add the sex a person was assigned at birth and you have four separate things. Each one can vary on its own, and knowing one tells you nothing certain about the others.
Sexual orientation
Who a person is physically, emotionally or romantically attracted to: lesbian, gay, bisexual, straight, asexual, and more. It describes attraction, not behavior, and it is not a preference or a choice.
Gender identity
A person’s own internal sense of their gender: woman, man, nonbinary, or something else. Only that person can know it. A trans woman is a woman. A nonbinary person does not identify only as a man or only as a woman.
Gender expression
How a person presents their gender outwardly: clothing, hair, voice, name, the way they carry themselves. Expression can change day to day, and it does not reliably tell you either of the first two.
Sex assigned at birth
The sex recorded when a baby is born, usually based on outward anatomy.
Two words you will hear. Cisgender: a person whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth. Transgender, or trans: a person whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.
What to ask, what to say
You do not need perfect vocabulary to be kind. These habits came from the panel.
Ask what a word means to them.
The same label can mean different things to different people, so ask instead of assuming.
I know what it means to me. What I don’t know is what it means to you.Board President, South Coast LGBTQ+ Network
Let people name themselves.
We cannot put an identity on anybody else other than ourselves.Board President, South Coast LGBTQ+ Network
When you are not sure, say so.
It is always OK to ask. In the panel’s words, it’s fine to “say, look, I want to get this right.”
Compassion over comprehension.
You do not have to understand everything about someone’s life to treat them with care.
Everybody is a person with dignity, with worth.Dr. Gonzalez, pediatrician
Where this comes from
In September 2026 the South Coast LGBTQ+ Network and the Rochester Rainbow Coalition held “Understanding SOGIE,” a free community forum at the Rochester Council on Aging. Old Rochester Community TV recorded the whole evening.
Watch the full forumVideo: Old Rochester Community TV